A phoenix never sleeps
by chloemcg
Summary: After Trucy has a night terror and wakes up in the middle of the night screaming, Phoenix has to try and reassure her and quell her most deepest fears and its up to the spiky-haired legendary attorney-at-law to restore calm and order to his adopted daughter's mind. One-shot.


**Disclaimer: I would NEVER own the characters of Ace attorney, they belong to Capcom.**

 **A phoenix never sleeps**

* * *

The darkness of sleep was so comforting, so relaxing, so hard not to sink further into the depths of it. Sleep was as deep as the sea, some could say. The instant you do drift off into the warmth and grand state of unconsciousness, pulls and it welcomes one down into its inviting embrace. No one escapes it yet some yearns for it, while others try to avoid it when they have too much stacked up inside their over-worked insomniac minds.

All the same, the realm of slumber was always welcome to those whom needed it.

Phoenix Wright shifted in his sleep, pulling the nice thick blankets covering him over himself to keep himself warm through the stiffly cold night. The mattress felt rather wrinkled under his weight and he could subconsciously feel the bed irritate his skin a bit and press against an exposed part on his side so it would stamp on a slight mark.

It hadn't been that long since he had finally recovered his Attorney's badge after eight years of not standing behind the defence bench.

Despite the long gap of time that had passed, it felt like time had melted into nothingness. It had become a blur.

The ace attorney relaxed with a sigh whilst he sunk a bit into the nice warm mattress that had supported his laying form. He felt at ease with the world around him and he felt like nothing could destroy the nice and peaceful life he had grown accustomed to. He loved life and he loved his family, that included his two understudies; Apollo Justice, the newbie named Athena Cykes, and his beautiful daughter, Trucy.

He smiled in his sleep.

But his eyes shot open abruptly when he heard a loud shriek.

Phoenix awoke with a jolt as he instantly sat up when a sound carried through the air, reaching his ears quickly. He recognised that shrill and high-pitched frequency of a sound and hearing it would always make his heart drop down low into his stomach, and his knuckles would turn white with fear.

He felt like his head was filled with cotton balls when he first awoke and he couldn't help but lay there in dazed. He took a quick second to gather some of his jumbled thoughts and threw the blankets off of himself, quickly leaping out of bed and stumbling a little bit due to fatigue.

He hardly even waited to catch his own balance before he took off like a missile and bolted towards the door. He had to keep from tripping over his own bare feet as they hit the floorboards below to cause a loud crash with each and every single running step he took whilst he made a mad dash out of his bedroom, his footsteps were clumsy and he was sure that he stubbed his toe on the way there, his mind was clouded with fatigue since he was still half asleep.

Soon enough found himself standing in the doorway of his teenaged daughter's bedroom.

He gasped at what he saw.

Although the room was quite dark, he could only just make out Trucy's face contorted with pain and anguish as she clutched on tightly to the sheets of her bed, her face sweaty and skin soaked to the bone as she tossed and turned and tossed again with her heart seemingly thumping in alarm.

The young girl tossed and turned in her bed and let out several sharp gasps whilst her long brown hair had been spread all over the pillows and her face was red, tears cascaded down her cheeks. She breathed raspy shallow breaths and her eyes twitched underneath her eyelids, she shivered as she broke into a heavy cold sweat and her hair was becoming frizzy and dishevelled as she rolled around in bed.

Phoenix could do nothing but stand helplessly in the doorway for several seconds, letting the reality of the startling scene sink in properly before he raced over to his daughter's side, hastily he reached to his right and switched on the lights to allow a gentle amber light to creep into the room and when his room was lit, then he ran forwards and plopped himself on the edge of the comfortable plush mattress his adopted daughter lay on and he reached down with both arms.

He gripped on to her shoulders and proceeded to attempt to shake her awake.

"T-Trucy! Wake up! Wake up!" He yelled, his voice raspy from sleepiness yet laced with urgency from the situation.

The young teen snapped open her eyes, gasping aloud as she abruptly sat up and flung her head around in a disoriented panic. She instinctively clung on to Phoenix as tight as she possibly could next to her and she held him in a death-grip that could have easily snapped Phoenix's spinal cord clean in half.

Trucy looked to the spiky-haired lawyer with wide eyes filled with terror. Her pupils had shrunk into teeny dots and hot tears meandered down her face without end whilst Phoenix gently gathered her shivering form into his arms and enveloped her into a tight cuddle.

The poor young magician then completely broke down into a crying and screaming mess.

She buried her face into the lawyer's strong chest with her whole body trembling as though she had been stranded in the middle of a horrific blizzard. Her long brown hair was a mess and was quite stringy and a bit more prickly-looking instead of it being straight and long, Phoenix deduced that it probably got into that state by her writhing around so much.

"D-D-Daddy, I-I-I'm so sorry, daddy! It's all MY f-f-fault! I-I-Its m-my fault you l-lost your a-attorney b-b-badge, i-its all my f-fault, d-daddy," Trucy hyperventilated as she clung on even tighter to her father "J-Just p-p-please d-don't go a-away!"

Phoenix didn't know how to respond to that. It was obvious that the poor magician had a terrible nightmare and it was much more obvious that it had been about the day he had lost his attorney's badge and when her father had disappeared. While he knew that the child helped her father vanish in the first place, at the time she was a young child who just didn't know any better.

"It's okay...just let it all out, sweetheart, I'm here, I've got you..."

Trucy just continued to bawl into his chest, her body wracking heavily with sobs as she was practically glued to him.

Phoenix held her close, rubbing soothing shapes on his adopted daughter's back to try and calm her down and make sure she wasn't crying so much that every word she spoke would be lost to her stutters and stammering. He could feel his heart break for the poor magician and he never wished for her to go through such turmoil.

The poor girl must have had been bottling up her emotions and, with trembling hands, the attorney picked his adopted baby girl's prone form and started to cradle her from side-to-side in his strong arms.

He gently leaned forwards and proceeded to brush his nose against hers whilst he combed her hair with his fingers. Trucy continued to cling on tight to the soaked pyjama top of her adoptive father, weeping heavily as if it were the end of the world.

"D-Daddy...!" Trucy started to speak, but only for Phoenix to stop her as he shushed her to silence her.

Trucy frowned in confusion when she felt her adoptive father's warm lips press against her chilled damp forehead as he kissed her atop the head. Her eyes were filled with tears and her deep blue pools were swirled with a hint of loneliness as she continued to cling on to her guardian. Her heart ached with this pain she couldn't describe as she sobbed and sniffled softly.

"It's alright, sweetheart..." Phoenix spoke softly "...it happened years ago and I'm not going anywhere and I don't blame you for what happened back then."

Trucy rubbed at her eyes, which were raw and bloodshot from crying so much, then she opened her mouth to insist that she had done wrong. But Phoenix cut her off and interrupted before she could even speak, he lifted his hand to touch her chin and he gently lifted her head and made her look him directly in the eye.

"Objection!" He spoke sternly yet softly whilst narrowing his eyes a bit, "Trucy Wright, me being disbarred back then wasn't your fault. You didn't do anything wrong and I'm not going anywhere, I promised that I would never vanish didn't I? I said I would not leave you like Zak did because you are _my_ precious baby girl and I love you. Do you understand?"

Trucy snuffled as she nodded with her face buried into her father's chest, tears continuing to stream down her cheeks. Her eyes were huge and glossy and her tears were illuminant in the soft glow of the bedside lamp, her cheeks were bright red and looked a bit feverish as though they had been painted red. Sobs choked at her throat and her voice box was strained so she couldn't even make a much of a sound even if she wanted to.

With the attorney's presence, she felt more secure and safer when she was in his embrace and whenever she was inside those strong arms that would point whenever he shouted out a courtroom objection, she would feel his body warmth wrap around her like a towel.

Trucy buried herself into her adoptive father's chest and melted into his protective and sheltering arms, the young magician had dissolved into sobs and sniffles.

"Now. How 'bout I just stay in with you until you fall back to sleep?"

Trucy sniffled, a single tear trickling down her face, an expression of hope plastering itself on her tear-stained face. "...R-Really? You'd do that, daddy?"

Phoenix smiled oh-so gently as he reached forwards and wiped the tear away with his thumb, and then he nodded his head. "Of course I would."

Phoenix adored how Trucy always seemed to show this gentle and needy attitude when she was at her most vulnerable, it reminded him of how lucky he had been to raise a sweet little girl and it made him glad that she wasn't really like most teens:

Rebellious, rule-breaking and rude to her elders.

The spiky-haired lawyer's heart couldn't help but melt like butter in a microwave as he took Trucy's sweaty hand into his own and held it gently, her smaller lithesome hand slipping into his slightly larger one, and he softly and absentmindedly rubbed the back of it with his thumb. Trucy let out a soft sigh of contentment as she lay her head down on his shoulder and used it as a pillow.

It didn't take too long before she fell asleep again and she sighed with some contentment as she cuddled up to Phoenix's soaked chest.

Phoenix frowned as he leaned down to kiss the top of her head but he couldn't help but feel his mind spin with confusion whence he thought back on the current stance with his teenage daughter. This was the third night terror in a row she had and she had been losing a lot of sleep to these midnight panic attacks, even he would understand since Trucy's life nor her childhood had been easy.

Her own biological father had vanished on her, after all.

The attorney sighed as he continued to hold on to her, never wanting to release his precious little one. His beautiful daughter was suffering with these constantly reoccurring nightmares and she was constantly awakening with shrieks of terror and constant floods of tears. This had become a weekly routine; she would have these nightmares and he would make a mad dash into her room and try to calm her down and make her feel better until she fell asleep again.

He _hated_ it when this happened.

He _hated_ seeing Trucy in so much pain.

But Phoenix knew that he had to be there and support her whenever he could since he wasn't there a load of the time, the poor girl would sometimes have to deal with this all on her own when she was alone and thinking of that made his heart crumble into dust. He hated it when his poor little girl, even in her teen years, was having such frequent night terrors. He started to stroke Trucy's messy hair and combed his fingers through the fine thin strands that hung loosely from her scalp.

Trucy's chestnut brown hair felt so soft as the strands tickled his fingertips as well as her warm sleepy breaths seep into the side of his neck, the teen slumped forwards as she seemed to finally and completely surrender to that alluring invitation of sweet slumber. Her fiercely-tight grip loosened considerably and she started to snore a bit louder.

The attorney couldn't hold back a small smile as he very gently pried Trucy away from him, unhooking her hands from his night shirt, and held her up so she wouldn't fall.

He gently lay the now sleeping young teen girl back down on the bed, being careful not to wake her, and he reached down and lay her on the bed. He then gently reached down and pulled and draped the thick blankets over her and tucked them around her limp form.

The spiky-haired man didn't know whether his fatigue-induced was playing tricks on him but he could have sworn that he saw the corners of Trucy's lips curl upwards.

Phoenix leaned forwards and planted a small kiss on Trucy's forehead then affectionately rubbed his nose against her cheek and then he sat up again and started wiping a couple of loose strands out of her eyes and tucking it behind her left ear, and then he stared at his little girl a few seconds more so he could double check that she was completely okay and not show anymore signs of fear.

The lawyer in blue ran his hand over his jet black spikes and exhumed a deep-throated sigh, he felt tired (exhausted even) but he suddenly felt his eyelids grow heavy and he found himself having trouble resisting the strong yet enticing invitation of slumber once more.

Exhausted, Phoenix let out a huge yawn and he could see that his eyesight was fading and blurring severely and his head started to feel like it was stuffed with cotton. Sleep called like a sirens song, it wanted to pull him into the abyssal depths of slumber and he just couldn't fight it off. So he slumped forwards on the bed, letting his upper half land first on the plush mattress and his head rested next to his daughter's, he let his eyes drift close and it was only like five seconds before he had let himself sink low into the gentle caress of sleep.

Phoenix had felt supremely lucky to have such a beautiful girl be the highlight of his life, how could life get any better -especially now that he had his attorneys badge back?

Both father and daughter slept well for the rest of that night.

* * *

 **A/N: Yaaaay! I finally finished this one-shot! I love writing Phoenix and Trucy father/daughter fics. This is another fanfic that I've been working on for awhile and I decided to just finish and upload it now because it's been awhile since I've uploaded a fluffy Ace attorney fanfic and I figured you deserve a bit of fluff for waiting so long.**

 **Btw, it's my birthday today so that's exciting! :D**

 **Please review and fave and I hope you like this one-shot.**

 **-Chloemcg**


End file.
